Felix K S Lim
PhD
Research
My research focuses on market outcomes of agricultural intensification and land use in the tropics, and how they may impact biodiversity.
Conversion of tropical forests to farmland is a major driver of the global extinction crisis, and this is likely to worsen as the pressures to meet food demands grow with the rising global population. High-intensity farming is usually viewed as an effective means of reducing the need for land clearing while increasing crop production.
However, improving crop yields could make agriculture more profitable, lower market prices and increase demands, making agricultural expansion more likely to occur. This feedback is often overlooked. The emergence of high-yield agriculture in the tropics could therefore perversely increase the rate of deforestation.
In this project, I hope to improve our understanding and explain how agricultural intensification and other market shocks could affect prices, distribution and production of crops, and ultimately, land conversion. I hope to predict areas vulnerable to agricultural expansion, and how this affects biodiversity loss in the tropics.
This PhD is co-supervised by Dr Jolian McHardy and Assistant Professor Roman Carrasco, and is part of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures programme.
View my CV (PDF, 159KB)
About me
Other past and current work I have been involved in include:
Studies on how species functional traits vary along environmental gradients.
Species extinction and fragmented habitat loss
Cost-efficiency analyses of oil palm smallholders.
The relationship between fires and land-use change in the tropics.
I enjoy walking, music and books.